PMP (Preference Management Platform)

The Preference Management Platform (PMP) is a small piece of JavaScript you add to your pages with one <script> tag. It asks each visitor how they want their data used for marketing, keeps the answer, and makes that answer available to the rest of the page. The answer is one of three values, and those three values are exactly the id.usage values the 51Degrees cloud takes, so nothing has to be translated between the dialog and the service.

The platform does two things a publisher cannot easily do alone. It asks the question in the visitor's own language, and it can carry the answer across the other websites in a group you name, so a visitor who has already answered on one of your sites is not asked again on the next one.

The answer the visitor gives is what allows a 51Did (51Degrees Identifier) to be created. The identifier is created by the cloud only after every other value on the page has been resolved, and only when an answer is present, so a page where nobody was asked produces no identifier at all.

What the Visitor Sees🔗

  1. The first card. A dialog asking how the visitor wants marketing to work. It offers Personalized, the alternative you configure (for example 'Subscribe' or 'Remove ads'), and Standard when you turn Standard on. There is no close cross, so the only way past it is to answer it.
  2. The second card. When the first answer was Standard or Personalized, your settings allow sharing, and third party cookies are confirmed to work in the visitor's browser, a second card asks whether the answer should apply to the other sites in the group you named. Where the client script is still testing the cookie when the visitor answers, a waiting ring shows for up to three seconds, and if third party cookies are not confirmed in that time there is no second card and the answer stays with this site. The platform never waits for the 51Did. Where sharing is not configured there is no second card and no wait. See Sharing an Answer Across Your Sites.
  3. The bubble. After answering, the dialog collapses to a small bubble in the corner. Clicking the bubble reopens the dialog so the visitor can change their answer whenever they like. A returning visitor whose answer is already known sees the bubble and no dialog.

The Three Answers🔗

Answer What the visitor chose Value sent to the cloud
Personalized Personalized advertising and targeted content personalized
Standard Frequency capping and measurement only standard
The alternative button The visitor takes what you offer instead of marketing non-marketing

All three are answers, and each one creates a 51Did carrying that usage where the key in use is entitled to it. Standard and Personalized need the licence key the marketing usages require, and where the key does not carry it the dialog still asks the question, an answer of Standard or Personalized creates no identifier at all, and only the alternative answer creates one. See 51Did (51Degrees Identifier).

The alternative button is not a refusal to answer and it is not a failure path. It records that the visitor declined marketing, which is worth knowing, because another site in the group can then offer its own alternative rather than asking a question the visitor has already answered. What each answer permits is set out in the Model Terms for Marketing, version 2, at https://m4ow.uk/mtm/2.txt. See Preferences.

The Pieces on the Page🔗

  • The loader tag, which is the one <script> tag you write. It reads your settings from its own attributes and pulls in the bundle those settings call for.
  • The bundle, which is the platform itself, built for one language and loaded asynchronously. Because it is asynchronous, it can finish loading before or after anything else on the page.
  • The 51Degrees client script, which is the script that gathers the page's values and asks the cloud for its answers, publishing them on a page object named fod by default. It listens for the platform's answer by itself, so you write no code to join the two. Where your page carries no client script tag, the platform adds one. See Integration.
  • The cloud, which serves the loader, the bundle and the client script, holds a shared answer when the visitor agrees to share one, and creates the 51Did.

The Load Process🔗

The diagram below is the common case, being a visitor who has not answered before and who answers the first card after the client script has already made its first request. That order is the normal one and not a recovery path.

sequenceDiagram
    participant Browser as Browser
    participant Page as Page
    participant Loader as PMP loader tag
    participant Bundle as PMP bundle, loads asynchronously
    participant Cloud as 51Degrees cloud
    participant Script as 51Degrees client script

    Browser->>Page: Load the page
    Page->>Loader: Run the loader tag
    Loader->>Cloud: GET /api/v4/pmp/[language]
    Cloud-->>Bundle: The bundle for this visitor's language

    Note over Bundle: init() starts here
    Bundle->>Bundle: Read this site's answer from local storage
    alt Nothing held for this site
        Bundle->>Cloud: GET /api/v4/pmp/pref, carrying the cloud's own cookie
        Note over Bundle,Cloud: Waits up to 1500 milliseconds, and no reply by then counts as no answer
        Cloud-->>Bundle: The group's answer, or nothing
        Note over Browser,Bundle: An answer that comes back shows no dialog, only the bubble
    end

    alt The page carries no client script tag
        Bundle->>Page: Add the client script tag and log that it did
        Page->>Cloud: GET /api/v4/[resource key].js
        Cloud-->>Script: The client script
    else A tag is there, whether or not it has run
        Bundle->>Bundle: Wait for that tag and log that it is waiting
    end

    Note over Bundle,Script: The answer is announced on the window and held behind window.__51d_pmp.preference()
    Script->>Script: Read the getter or the stored answer, then listen for the event
    Script->>Cloud: First request, with the answer if there is one
    Cloud-->>Script: The snippets to run, and no 51Did without an answer
    Script->>Script: Run the snippets and keep their results
    Script-->>Bundle: Whether third party cookies work, once the script has tested the cookie

    Bundle-->>Browser: First card
    Browser->>Bundle: Standard, Personalized or the alternative
    par The 51Did
        Bundle->>Script: 51d-pmp-preference on the window
        Script->>Script: refresh()
        Script->>Cloud: Request carrying the usage and every snippet result
        Cloud-->>Script: The 51Did, created after every other value
    and The second card, only where sharing is configured
        alt Third party cookies already confirmed to work, the case shown above
            Bundle-->>Browser: Second card, at once
        else Already known not to work, or never going to be tested
            Bundle-->>Browser: No second card, and the answer stays with this site
        else The script is still testing the cookie
            Note over Bundle: Waits up to three seconds for that alone, never for the 51Did
            Bundle-->>Browser: Waiting ring
            alt Confirmed to work within three seconds
                Script-->>Bundle: Third party cookies work
                Bundle-->>Browser: Second card
            else Not confirmed within three seconds
                Bundle-->>Browser: No second card, and the answer stays with this site
            end
        end
    end

    Browser->>Bundle: Use this answer across the group
    Bundle->>Cloud: POST /api/v4/pmp/pref
    alt The cloud confirms within 1500 milliseconds
        Cloud-->>Bundle: Stored
        Bundle->>Bundle: Remove the copy held on this site
    else Refused, or no confirmation by then
        Bundle->>Bundle: Keep the answer with this site
    end

    Note over Page,Script: Either tag order works, because the bundle loads asynchronously

The Same Sequence in Words🔗

  1. The loader tag runs, reads your attributes, and asks the cloud for the bundle in the visitor's language.
  2. The bundle starts and reads this site's stored answer.
  3. Finding none, and where you allow sharing, it asks the cloud for the group's answer. That request carries the cloud's own cookie, which is a third party cookie, so it works only in browsers that allow one. When an answer comes back the visitor sees no dialog, only the bubble. The platform waits up to 1500 milliseconds for that reply, and a reply that has not arrived by then counts as no answer, so the dialog is shown.
  4. Where the page carries no 51Degrees client script tag, the platform adds one from the same cloud that served it, using the resource key it already holds, and says so in the console. Where a tag is there it waits for it, run or not, and adds nothing.
  5. Any answer in force is announced on the window and is also available from window.__51d_pmp.preference(), which answers straight away.
  6. The client script reads whatever is available when it is built, registers for the platform's event, makes its first request, and runs the snippets the cloud asks for. On the common path there is no answer yet, so that first request creates no 51Did. The platform learns whether third party cookies work from the first of the script's responses that settles the question, which does not have to wait for the end of the round.
  7. The visitor answers the first card. The platform announces the answer.
  8. The client script hears the announcement and refreshes itself. That request carries the usage and every snippet result, so the 51Did is created after every other value is known.
  9. At the same moment, and only where sharing is configured, the platform decides about the second card. The second card is shown only where third party cookies are confirmed to work, and the platform never waits for the refresh, the 51Did or IsGdpr. Where the client script has already tested the cookie, which is the case above, the platform decides at once, showing the second card where the cookie worked, and closing the dialog with the answer kept by this site where it did not. Where the test is still running, the platform shows its waiting ring for up to three seconds. If third party cookies are confirmed in that time the second card follows, and if they are not there is no second card and the answer stays with this site.
  10. If the visitor agrees to share, the platform writes the answer to the cloud and removes the copy held on this site, so there is one answer and never two. The platform waits up to 1500 milliseconds for the cloud to confirm the write, and where the cloud refuses it or has not confirmed it by then, the answer stays with this site.

Either tag order works. The bundle is loaded asynchronously, so putting the platform's tag above or below the client script's tag changes nothing about the outcome. The client script takes whatever answer is available when it is built and listens for one arriving later.

In This Section🔗

Integration

Preferences

Sharing an Answer Across Your Sites

IsGdpr

Using a Consent Management Platform Instead

Compared With a Consent Management Platform

Configuration Attributes

Privacy Notice Wording

Find Out More🔗

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